Vol. 429 No. 6
139 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for the Environment if the DTI was due to report in April 1993 on a Dublin port relief route; if the decision will be delayed; if so, the reason for this delay; if any further delay can be justified in view of the fact that all the necessary research information is already available; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
A key element of the work required to enable the Dublin Transportation Initiative make a definitive recommendation on access to Dublin Port is the conduct of a detailed origin and destination survey of commercial traffic to and from the port. This is essential to enable travel patterns for goods vehicles to be clearly identified.
As a result of an industrial dispute at the B & I container terminal, normal commercial traffic patterns to and from the port were disrupted for some time and the DTI study team, having consulted Dublin Port, recommended that the traffic survey should be deferred. This recommendation was accepted by the DTI technical committee. Following further consultations with Dublin Port, it now appears that traffic patterns are sufficiently settled to allow the survey go ahead in early May.
In the intervening period, other elements of the port access study have been proceeding but vital transportation modelling work has had to be delayed pending the availability of the traffic data. Every effort is being made to complete this work as quickly as possible.
